Bulgarian Paralympic athletes have left for the Rio 2016 Paralympics (7-18 September). Bulgaria would give a prize of 25,000 euro for each gold medal won at the forum, it was announced. The state prize for a gold at the Olympics that already ended in Rio was 125,000 euros. On this occasion Paralympic athlete Denislav Kodzhabashev wrote an open letter to the Minister of Sport, Krassen Kralev:

"Underestimating our work is insulting. Our efforts are not five times smaller than those of healthy athletes. In Beijing 2008 awards for athletes and Paralympic athletes were the same. In London in 2012 they were different but the difference was not so great. For my gold medal of the Games in Sochi I received a prize of € 0. I see that you assess highly our efforts and the way we represent Bulgaria," Kodzhabashev wrote and added that in case he won a medal in Rio, he would give the prize money for charity.